Bill Pugliano / Getty Images
In this file photo, flags fly outside the General Motors world headquarters building in Detroit, Mich.
By msnbc.com staff and news wires
GM (GM) posted a profit of $1 billion in the first quarter, beating Wall Street expectations on strong demand in its key North American market.
GM also said the U.S. economy was improving and it expected its core North American results in the second and third quarters to largely match the first quarter due to scheduled downtime at its large truck plants.
"We're clearly seeing some improvement in the (U.S.) economy," Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann told reporters. "It's a modest underlying improvement, but it's patchy and it won't necessarily all go in a straight line."
The quarter included the impact of $800 million in higher vehicle pricing and lower consumer incentives, half of which came in North America. Last year, GM offered heavy consumer incentives to drive sales in the U.S. market, something it did not do this year.
GM lost $256 million pretax in Europe, where it took a $590 million charge related to pension costs. Excluding one-time items related to the impairment of goodwill primarily in Europe, the No. 1 U.S. automaker reported a profit of 93 cents per share.
Analysts, on average, expected GM to earn 85 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Net income fell to $1 billion, or 60 cents a share, from $3.15 billion, or $1.77 a share, in the same quarter a year earlier. Last year's quarter included a one-time gain of $1.5 billion related to the sale of stakes in Delphi and Ally.
Revenue for the quarter was $37.8 billion, up 4.4 percent from $36.2 billion a year ago.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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